Maria Ellingham had not worked full-time for a decade after having children. She then became a single parent who had the will to work but lacked the way. She was a qualified reflexologist and wanted to set up her own business, but she needed to find the confidence and to learn the skills of self-employment.

Yet in July, two months after taking part in a council-commissioned scheme, Ellingham launched her own reflexology business. A former account manager at a cosmetics company, she is among 54 people helped into employment or self-employment through Central Bedfordshire and Bedford borough councils' building enterprising communities scheme.

The project, delivered by Exemplas, a skills organisation at the University of Hertfordshire, which, together with the Prince's Trust and the training group Wenta, promotes enterprise within disadvantaged communities. Funded until June 2014 with £280,000 of European Social Fund money, it targets those considered hard to reach – parents returning to work, black and ethnic minority groups, former offenders, long-term unemployed – and offers them support to encourage self-employment.

Ellingham, who heard of the project through her local jobcentre, says without it she would be on benefits. "I wouldn't have set up by myself; I'd have given up, or still be applying for jobs."

Creating jobs for enterprising residents

The council scheme builds on a pilot sparked by the lack of local jobs. The 2009-11 pilot led to 15 new startups, from catering to dog grooming and children's entertainment companies, and 274 finding work either for themselves or for an employer.

The project's aim is not to breed the next Richard Branson but to remove the barriers to work, targeting communities at the grassroots. Instead of relying on leaflets, posters and websites, staff engage participants in sessions at community venues and neighbourhood events, faith groups and children's centres, as well as more conventionally through the network of jobcentres.

Crucially, explains Liz Wade, assistant director, economic growth, skills and regeneration at Central Bedfordshire council, the scheme is not "anonymous". It is not delivered by different council officials, but by business and employment experts with whom participants build a relationship. "This is not the local authority saying 'You have to work'," she says.

To make it accessible to all, there are translators for those whose first language is not English, and single-sex sessions are available to honour cultural differences.

Workshops promote enterprise as a valid employment option (one introductory session is entitled "Can you give yourself a job?"), while others explore coaching, business skills, local financial support and networking. Most people are supported for a few weeks or months, and there is special advice for young people from the Princes's Trust.

Maria Ellingham's first session involved discussing a business plan and exploring email, websites and events for marketing. Ellingham had four hour-long sessions in as many weeks, learning about book-keeping and how to criticise her own work constructively.

She still regards her adviser as a mentor, adding that a bonus to the scheme was its flexibility. Not only could she arrange sessions around her two children, but self-employment proved a practical option for a single parent. Those with caring responsibilities are also able to draw on additional EU funding. "We can get an extension to a current care contract or get a carer [to stay with the person being cared for when someone has a workshop to go to]," says Wade.

Lessons for all

But the councils have learned some important lessons from the scheme. The major question over its value has been long-term sustainability; the project can get people into jobs – self-employed or otherwise – but is there any guarantee they will remain in work? While there are as yet no statistics available, Wade says one emerging answer is to treat participants as a community of peer supporters: "We're getting a group [together] which can be self-supporting – they do it informally and we arrange networking too."

Another lesson for council commissioners is recognising that private or third sector partners are the real experts. They know how, and where, a contract should be delivered. Wade says councils should learn to be more strategic about the commissioning process, "not be so constrained in contracting, offering flexibility [not choosing to] squeeze them and say 'That was not in the contract'."

The ability to draw on partners' strengths and resources is key to success in council employment projects, agrees Anne Stilton, delivery manager at Exemplas. "Flexibility and creativity are needed to ensure people's longer-term support needs can be met … Exemplas and its partners have provided match and in-kind funding to ensure the success of the project."

Such is the success of the work that it has been shortlisted for awards. Exemplas is now working with others in the public sector to deliver the pioneering model elsewhere. In Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex, the organisation provides self-employment support for the Department of Work and Pensions' disability employment project contract, managed by the Shaw Trust.

Stilton claims that the success of this scheme is down to a tailor-made employment advice combined with very local engagement. "Getting out and meeting people in their own day-to-day environment is an effective way of reaching many of the traditionally hard-to-reach groups … the scheme stands out for its results, that so many people in disadvantaged communities have been able to change their lives," she says.